Refrigerator with an improved air handler for quickly chilling a bin

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator with an improved air handler for a quick chill bin is disclosed. The refrigerator includes a first compartment, a second compartment and a bin disposed in the second compartment. The air handler includes a first conduit for supplying cooling air from the first compartment to the bin, and a second conduit for returning air from the bin to the first compartment. The second conduit substantially covers the first conduit.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator that includes an air handler that provides for an increased amount of storage space in a compartment of a refrigerator. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to an air handler with two ducts in a compact and thermally insulated relationship.

Many refrigerators include a freezer compartment and a refrigerator or fresh food compartment. Within the fresh food compartment, there is a quick chill bin usually located at a bottom of the compartment. A user can open the bin, place certain food items in the bin, close the bin, and chill the food items to a desired temperature in a relatively rapid manner. The rapid chilling is typically accomplished by using an air handler, which includes a supply duct for supplying cooling air from the freezer compartment to the bin, and a return duct for returning the air in the bin to the freezer compartment. The air handler usually occupies space above and behind the bin. The ducts are placed in a side-by-side fashion. Because of the temperature difference between the cooling air and the air in the fresh food compartment, a relatively heavy thermal insulation is required around the ducts in order to prevent the formation of condensation or frost on the external surface of the air handler. The insulation undesirably increases the total volume or size of the air handler. As a result, the air handler occupies additional space in the fresh food compartment that would be useful for storage. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a relatively small air handler that occupies less space in the fresh food compartment so that more space in the fresh food compartment can be used for storing food items while providing the same or greater quick chilling capabilities.

Turning now to FIG. 1, there is shown a fresh produce tray 10 used in a fresh food compartment of a refrigerator. The fresh produce tray 10 has an interior space 12 and first, second and third walls 14, 16 and 18 respectively extending from a base 20. The tray 10 also has a frontal opening 22 that is relatively wide. The tray 10 also has a number of ridges 24 for supporting refrigerated items. The rear side 26 of the tray 10 has a curvature and the base 20 has a protrusion 28 extending upwardly from the base 20. Essentially, the protrusion 28 and the curvature define a space for receiving an air handler for quickly chilling a bin disposed immediately below the tray 10.

The consumers negatively perceive the loss of space attributed to the protrusion 28 and the curvature of the tray 10.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As described herein, the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure overcome one or more of the above or other disadvantages known in the art.

According to the present disclosure, there is provided a refrigerator that includes a first compartment; a second compartment; a bin disposed in the second compartment; and an air handler including a first conduit for supplying cold air from the first compartment to the bin, and a second conduit for returning air from the bin to the first compartment. The first conduit is disposed within the second conduit. By this arrangement, the air handler occupies less volume in the second compartment than do conventional air handler configurations.

These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. Moreover, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a fresh produce tray of the prior art.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a refrigerator in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2A is a partial, perspective, cut-away view of the lower portion of the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator of FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 is a schematic, top view of the air handler used in the refrigerator of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the air handler of FIG. 2A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure is directed to a refrigerator such as refrigerator 100 illustrated in FIG. 2 that has a relatively small ducting arrangement for quickly chilling a quick chill bin 122 provided in the fresh food compartment 106. The ducting arrangement provides the communication of cooling air from the freezer compartment 104 to the bin 122. At the same time, the ducting arrangement returns the relatively warm air from the bin 122 back to the freezer compartment. This ducting functionality is provided by an air handler 300 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. The air handler 300 occupies less than 0.2 cubic feet in the fresh food compartment. Thus, compared with the conventional air handler with the side-by-side ducting arrangement, which uses about 0.5 cubic feet, the air handler 300 has a size that reclaims some usable storage space in the fresh food compartment.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the unit 100 includes a freezer door 132 and a refrigerator door 134 that selectively close a freezer compartment 104 and a fresh food compartment 106, respectively. Each of the doors 132, 134 is mounted by a top hinge 136 and a bottom hinge (not shown) to rotate about its outer vertical edge between an open position, as shown in FIG. 2, and a closed position (not shown) closing the respective compartment. An insulated partition wall or mullion 114 separates the fresh food compartment 106 from the freezer compartment 104. Disposed on the freezer door 132 are a number of shelves 138. The freezer door 132 has a sealing gasket 140 surrounding the periphery edge of the inner surface of the door 132. The freezer compartment 104 preferably has an ice bin 110, one or more shelves 126, and a number of wire baskets 128. Disposed in the fresh food compartment 106 are a number of slidable trays or bins 120, which are disposed in a stacked arrangement along with shelves 118 for the storage of items. On the refrigerator door 134, there are a number of shelves 142 and a sealing gasket 144 surrounding the periphery edge of the inner surface of the door 134. The freezer compartment 104 may house a dispenser assembly (not shown), whereby ice and/or water can be dispensed through the door 132. The unit 100 may further have other optional assemblies to advance the functionality of the unit 100 and therefore is not limited as shown.

In the illustrated embodiment, the unit 100 further includes the bin 122 which is positioned in the lower section of the fresh food compartment 106, and the air handler 300 of FIGS. 3 and 4. As illustrated in FIG. 2A, the air handler 300 occupies some space in the area between the upper tray 120 and the bin 122, and the upper tray 120 has a back configuration that substantially matches at least part of the air handle unit 300 so that the upper tray 120 can fully slide back into the fresh food compartment 106.

Turning now to FIG. 3, there is shown a top, schematic view of the air handler 300. Dotted lines are used to show the freezer and the fresh food compartments 104, 106. In the exemplary embodiment, the air handler 300 serves two main functions. First, it establishes a supply flow connection so that cold freezer air can flow from the freezer compartment 104 to the bin 122 to quickly chill the bin 122 and items placed therein. Second, the air handler 300 establishes a return flow connection so that relatively warm air can flow from the bin 122 back to the freezer compartment 104. In this embodiment, the air handler 300 has a ducting arrangement, which includes a first duct or conduit 325, and a second duct or conduit 330. As clearly shown in FIG. 3, the first duct 325 is disposed inside the second duct 330. The first duct 325 and the second duct 330 form a duct manifold 331, one end 331 a of which is in fluid or flow communication with the freezer compartment 104 through an opening 114 a formed on the mullion 114, and the other end 331 b of which is in fluid or flow communication with the bin 122 through an opening 122 a preferably formed on the back wall of the bin 122. In one non-limiting embodiment, the ducts 325 and 330 are concentrically aligned. Concentric means that a center of the first duct 325 is approximately shared with a center of the second duct 330. Other arrangements are possible too, provided the second duct 330 substantially covers the first duct 325. For example, the second duct 330 can have cross section which substantially surrounds the first duct 325. In FIG. 3, several items 310, such as soda cans, are shown placed in the bin 122. However, this arrangement is not limiting, and any food items can be stored therein. Cold freezer air flows into the first duct 325 through its inlet 325 a, passes through it along path A, and exits at its outlet 325 b. As the cold freezer air circulates among the items 310, which are warmer, the items 310 then become cooler, and the cold freezer air becomes warmer. The warmer air exits bin 122 and returns to the freezer compartment 104 through second duct 330. In the exemplary embodiment, the warmer air contacts the walls of the bin 122, and is directed into the second duct 330 through its inlet 330a, passes through it along path B, exits at the outlet 330 b

In the illustrated embodiment, the apparatus 300 includes a fan 320, which is preferably placed in the first duct 325, adjacent its outlet end. The fan 320 is used to move the cold freezer air from the freezer compartment 104 to the bin 122 and to return the warmed air from the bin 122 back to the freezer compartment. However it should be appreciated that the air handler 300 is not limited to one fan 320 as multiple fans can be used as needed. For example, a second fan can be placed inside the second conduit 325. Furthermore, the air handler 300 may use other known circulation mechanisms for introducing cold freezer air into the bin 122 and for removing the warm air from the bin 122.

The air handler 300 preferably includes an air damper 335 for selectively controlling the airflow in the first duct 325 and/or the second duct 330. The air damper 335 can be operatively coupled and controlled by a microprocessor (not shown) that receives temperature signals from one or more sensors, for example, a thermistor (not shown) in or near the bin 122. In response to the temperature signals, the microprocessor can provide control signals to selectively open or close the damper (or slightly open or close) as required to maintain temperature control over the bin 122. The air damper arrangement is known in the art, and therefore will not be discussed in detail here.

The ducts 325, 330 can include a suitable insulating material positioned therebetween. It should be appreciated that by arranging the ducts 325, 330 in a concentric relationship that a reduced amount or thickness of insulation can be used because the second duct 330 functions as a cold air buffer. That is, the relatively warm air in the second duct 330 can be used to ensure that the temperature of the second duct (and of the air handler 300 that is disposed in the fresh food compartment) is above the dew point of the moistures in the fresh food compartment 104, which will substantially reduce or eliminate any condensation or frost on the external surface of the air handler 300.

Although the ducts 325, 330 are shown positioned mainly inside the fresh food compartment 106, the ducts 325, 330 can be alternatively positioned to extend substantially inside the freezer compartment 104. The ducts 325, 330 can be made from a rigid or flexible/resilient material. In addition, each of the duct 325, 330 can have differently shaped cross section, such as circular, elliptical, rectangular, square, triangle, trapezoidal, polygonal.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the air handler 300, separated from the unit 100. The air handler 300 of the exemplary embodiment is made of plastic, however, other materials known in the art that can withstand the temperatures experienced in the compartments 104, 106 could be employed. The ducts 325, 330 are housed in a resilient housing 340, which has a relatively small profile so as to not occupy too much space in the fresh food compartment 106. In the exemplary embodiment, the housing 340 occupies less than 0.2 cubic feet (about 5.66 liters) in the fresh food compartment 106. This compact size results in an increased amount of storage space in the fresh food compartment. For example, compared with a similar chilling capacity prior art air handler with a side-by-side duct arrangement and insulation, this compact size can increase the useful storage space of the lower tray 120, which is usually used as a vegetable tray, by about 0.1 cubic feet (2.83 liters).

Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, the cooling air can be drawn from the compartment that houses the evaporator instead of the freezer compartment. Moreover, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto. 

1. A refrigerator comprising: a first compartment; a second compartment; a bin disposed in the second compartment; and an air handler comprising: a first conduit for supplying cold air from the first compartment to the bin; and a second conduit for returning air from the bin to the first compartment, wherein the first conduit is disposed within the second conduit.
 2. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the first conduit and the second conduit are disposed in a substantially concentric relationship to one another.
 3. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first conduit and the second conduit comprises a flexible material.
 4. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the air handler occupies no greater than 0.2 cubic feet of space in the second compartment.
 5. The refrigerator of claim 1, further comprising a fan for causing cooling air to flow from the first compartment into the first conduit or causing air to flow from the bin into the second conduit.
 6. The refrigerator of claim 5, wherein the fan is disposed in the first conduit.
 7. The refrigerator of claim 6, wherein the first conduit has an output end, the fan being disposed adjacent to the output end.
 8. The refrigerator of claim 1, further comprising a damper for controlling at least one of an amount of the cooling air flowing into the first conduit from the first compartment and an amount of the air flowing into the second conduit from the bin.
 9. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein during operation, the air in the second conduit is warmer than the dew point of moistures in the second compartment so that no condensation or frost is formed on an external surface of the air handler.
 10. The refrigerator of claim 1, further comprising a mullion which separates the first compartment from the second compartment, the air handler passing through the mullion.
 11. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the first compartment is a freezer compartment and the second compartment is a fresh food compartment. 